Tonight I said goodbye...

Tonight I said goodbye to Andy Sipozwicz and the 15th Detective Squad of NYPD Blue. Not a real flesh-and-blood friend, although it certainly fells like it. Tonight's episode on ABC ended the 12-year run of what I feel is one of the best shows on television. For those who think I'm nuts, let me explain by starting with Dennis Franz' absolute masterpiece portrayal of the deep, flawed, good-hearted, gruff, sensitive, lovable, frustrating, prejudiced, always-growing Sipowicz. I think Andy's character is, in a way, every man. He is all of us. We all have flaws, and we all wish to be better people (sometimes even different people) than we are. And yet Andy never stopped growing, learning, and changing.

The first episode begins with Andy getting gunned down in a setup with a New York callgirl. In those early years we find him loud, obnoxious, and foul; antagonistic, a drunk, a womanizer. But in this near-death experience and the many that follow for him (both of his own and of so many so close to him), we see a man who is given chance after chance to learn and grow and change. Though Andy is only marginally a religious man, he seems to confront his Maker at every turn of his life. He is forced to face his demons, his past, his bad behavior, his vices, his bad attitudes, his resistance to traditional authority, his narrow-mindedness; and with each experience he seems to hold on just long enough to learn a little lesson from life--lessons that we only seem to learn by losing something, or someone, or some part of ourselves.

To combat Andy's deep-seated racism, he finds himself embroiled with a notable African-American leader in New York, and later dealing with his own attitudes towards the man after that man is killed. He also reports to a black Lieutenant. Everywhere Andy tries to continue business-as-usual, it appears that life won't let him off that easy.

His attititudes of intolerance of those of alternative lifestyles is challenged when he realizes that his last Lieutenant is gay, and yet doesn't seek to jeopardize the man's career--admirable since that same boss put continual pressure on Andy for his "outside the box" techniques and seeming inability to follow rules. Andy chooses the high road and refuses payback.

Andy is estranged with his son, finally united with him, sees him become a police officer and protege, and then watches in horror as "the job" claims Andy Jr.'s life.

He has a caustic exchange with the Assistant DA Sylvia Costas, and ends up marrying her, having a child with her, and suffering through the tragedy of her loss of life as well.

Det Sipowicz also bids farewell to colleagues--good ones, who are removed from his life with little or no justice. Indescretions by his first partner John Kelly force Kelly off the job. Andy' greets Kelly's replacement (French-Portugese Bobby Simone) with suspicion and disdain, and ends up loving him like a brother, and finally watching him die of a rare disorder. He sees the next commander of the squad go down in a political squabble, and the next immobilized by permanent nerve damage caused by a gun-firing perp.

Andy's life seems to be characterized by loss--and yet with each loss, Andy does not sink further into despair and hopelessness (although greatly tempted) but seems to rise just a bit further in hope for the future.

Though conservatives and family groups boycotted the show before its premiere in Dallas (and helped to prevent its first two seasons from airing on the local ABC affiliate), I think the show was profoundly spiritual. Though the show featured several obviously spiritual experiences (seeing both his lost son and departed partner in dreams and and receiving valuable life lessons from them), in a deeper sense I think Andy represents the true spiritual nature of the human condition fallen and frail, imperfect and plageud by doubt, and yet with just enough faith to continue around the next corner and be amazed at what life has in store. Though hard-headed, suspicious, judgmental, he is never swallowed up by life, and refuses to believe that his existence is summed up merely by taking the next drink or catching the next perp. In ways we all hope we would respond, Andy transcends his own life by being acquainted deeply with grief, confronting it, accepting it, learning from it, moving past it, and eventually utilizing it to help others with similar struggles (Detective Diane Russell with her husband Bobby's death and her own acoholism, his son with insights on judging people, helping young JohN Clark deal with his own demons from his father, loss of his own relationships, and near-loss of control of his own life).

Though Franz' portrayal was emotional, physical, and even spiritual on many planes, Sipowicz' greatest communication came through his deeply felt facial expressions. Behind that face are logged thousands of hours on the job, thousands of experiences, and thousands of emotions. With Andy, expression came not through what was said, but what was not--a furled, sweaty brow, the perennial wiping his hand over his moustache, the under-the-breath comment that never really gained flight. These devices revealed so much struggle and torment in a man who had endured so much, and yet somehow found the strength to continue living. When he smouldered, I did with him. When he lashed out in racial comments, I didn't agree with him, and yet I understood both how he felt and how quickly his darker side could get control of him. I felt his lonliness whenever it seems that nobody understood him, or sympathized with him, or was dealt the lousy hand that he was.

Through 12 years Franz' character truly grew. He changed, he left childish things behind and rose to the occasion when more was required of him. He softened, lost the edge and gruff exterior, gradually moved from caring only about himself to truly caring and understanding those who were different from him. From prejudice and impatience he blossomed into a truly patient, caring and forgiving man.

I will miss Andy Sipowicz. Though Dennis Franz is a very successful actor with roles in such high-profile films as City of Angels and Die Hard 2, for me he will always be Andy Sipowicz. Andy, you made me laugh, cry, face myself and my own predudices, see the world through another's eyes, and believe that there is hope for everyone. No one is doomed to failure by circumstances, loss, or experience--failure comes from within, from lacking faith and hope, from giving up, from deciding to quit.

Hats off to you, Dennis Franz, for creating and recreating a unique and memorable character who has become firmly lodged in our hearts in a way that none other has done.

And thank you, dear Andy, for sharing your struggles, your defeats, your faith, and your hope with us. We will miss you.